Debating Colorado ballot initiative for single-payer health care

It’s unsurprising that Janet Trautwein of the National Association of Health Underwriters opposes single-payer health care: she represents private insurers, whose profits are threatened by such a system.

The U.S. is the only industrialized country without a national health system, and even though we spend almost twice as much per capita on health care than any other nation, our medical outcomes are mediocre by comparison.

Yes, it’s true that in Canada, no one gets an elective hip or knee replacement immediately. No nation can assure that. Yet Canadians get the care they need and give their system much higher rates of satisfaction than we give our private-insurance-based arrangements.

Universal health care is on the ballot in Colorado because people recognize that insurer profits are made by denying care. Don’t let the insurance industry scare you into voting against your own interests.Dr. David Iverson resides in Denver.